Lanceman

I'm starting an ADN program in Spring '06 as well. Just went and took my drug screen and got fingerprinted today. All I have left to do is get my physical done Friday and get a titer test at the health department tomorrow. I just got out of the military after six years so this will be a second career for me also. I'm still in the reserves, couldn't bring myself to let those retirement points be wasted, my luck I'll probably get called back in the middle of the program. I hear ya SMK1 on those fees adding up. I will be out of pocket over $2,000 just to start the program but my GI Bill will eventually reimburse me after I start. The total program will be almost $6,000 but that isn't bad considering that is about one semester at the private schools around here. Good Luck everyone :)

The program I am applying to is brand new and the class starting this Spring is their first. Well they just announced all the pre-reqs and such in August with the application deadline in October. Well a RN friend of mine was talking to one of the CNA instructors from the same school's Nursing Department while they were doing clinicals at her facility. She was told that they had received 250 applications but only 12 qualified for the new RN program so far (I qualified so I am one of the 12). They have 25 spots to fill. Apparently they are worried they won't get enough people to qualify. They are supposed to be sending out acceptance letters next week so I'm not in for sure yet but it looks good from my standpoint (I hope they don't cancel the class due to lack of students though). I think it caught some people by surprise that they stood the program up that fast and most don't have the pre-req's completed. I had done a bunch of common pre-req's and co-req's for RN programs over the last few years and happened to already have everything done when I decided to pursue an ADN and this opportunity came up. Just wanted share, talk to you all later. Lance

As long as both schools are in the same state (I am am assuming both are public institutions) you shouldn't have any problem transfering classes from one to the other. Going from one state to another can be a hassle sometimes and even trying to bring public university credits into a private one can be tricky.

I just finished 6 years in the military as an electronics technician and the decision is in the hands of the RN program selection board at this point. Should find out by the beginning of Nov. for the Jan06 start date.

THe program I am waiting on acceptance from factors in GPA along with many other things. They award "points" for GPA, HESI admission test, prior work experience, co-requisites completed, and support courses/electives completed. Out of 100 points possible I have 57.5. It sounds bad but it is a decent score considering I don't have any prior healthcare experience or training. Mine is boosted because I have many of the co-requisite and support electives done and that brought my score up to around where some of the people with healthcare experience are sitting at. The application process is made to favor LPN and CNA applicants. Luckily for me it looks like not that many have applied for the program this year.

I turned my application package in near the end of September, should know something around the 1st of November. The College here is standing up a new RN program and this will be the first class. Since it is a new program and we are in a rural area there have only been about 60 applicants for 20 spots. Things look pretty good, I had a 3.7 GPA and all the pre and co-reqs (except microbiology) completed in advance. Everyone applying to the program took the HESI Admission Assessment in September and I got the 3rd highest score (91%) There were some sub-70 scores so that eliminated some people right off the bat. I was told my "points" total was one of the highest so we'll see what happens. With it being the first year of the program I imagine there will be some bumps in the road for everybody because I don't think they get accredited until after their first class takes the NCLEX. The admission process happened so fast for this new program from the time they announced the new program to the application deadline that many local people that wanted to apply didn't have all the pre-reqs needed so that is one reason for the smaller applicant pool. Good Luck everybody

I looked it up on salary.com once, major cities had compensation packages approaching $200,000 per year, mid size cities around 100-150k and smaller places in the 50-100k range. It's all about location and size of the facility. When I say compensation package I am talking about pay, benefits, bonuses, etc all together. Not a bad check but in a big corporation or major hospital could you even imagine the amounts of buttkissing and backstabbing that would have to be done to achieve that position :) j/k

Seems like everyone is in agreement that they couldn't work in people's mouths all day. That's probably the answer as to why they get paid more right there. I certainly couldn't do it, dental-related work is about the only thing that creeps me out. As far as nurses making too little, they only make so little because they allow themselves to be paid that little. They are not indentured servants (in most cases) and could always travel or move to a more lucrative area if more money is desired. The policeman in my small town start out at $23,000 a year. Most get some experience and move to the bigger cities nearby where they double their income, but with that they more than double the risks they take and crap they deal with. Supply and demand.

Does the bitee have a legal right to defend themselves from the biter ? If I am ever bitten they will easily be able to obtain a blood sample from the nose of the biter :) Seriously I would at least call the police and have them arrested for assault, customer service goes out the window at that point.

We actually had a facility director tell us one time that if a Union was brought in the parent company had already decided they would shut the facility down. It's in the south they pretty much don't tolerate unions here, regardless of what the law says.

In my opinion, in any environment, bullying is a part of life. It is like any other human behavior, it is natural. That doesn't mean one has to be passive or run away from it but it will never go away. You see bullying in everything from government to religion to education to overall life in general. There will always be dominant and passive people. Life is not and never will be "FAIR", besides life is only temporary, don't take it so seriously, make it work for you and don't let it work you :)

If anyone ever physically touches you or hits you with a thrown object you have every right to call the police and have them arrested for assault. I wouldn't be thinking of a lawsuit, I would be too happy seeing them taken out of the hospital in handcuffs after I agreed to press charges :) To be honest if someone threw something or hit me out of anger the police wouldn't be able to get there fast enough, there would already be a brawl in progress......

Yeah thats why they let just about any other profession in the world go straight to a masters without any real work experience. Nursing shouldn't be any different. Pharmacists and Physical Therapists don't have 10 years experience under their belt when they get a Masters. If someone is motivated when they are younger, in school mode already, and has less responsibilities then they should get all the education available to them while they have the chance. I'm thinking of switching my major to criminal science/criminology anyway. About have decided nursing is not for me. I have been in the military and in law enforcement and both didn't seem half as under appreciated or stressful as the nursing profession. At least in law enforcement the abusive public one encounters can be put in their place (within the law of course), you get to yell at people sometimes, and occasionally get to tackle someone and put the cuffs on 'em, they oughtta let nurses do that :)

I don't mean anything bad or damaging to their career, etc. I'm talking about just giving a little stress back. My current supervisor used to pitch little fits and ridicule an individual's job performance in front of them and everybody. One day about two years ago, during one of these little rants 4 of us pulled out little pocket notebooks and just started taking notes of his behavior. He stopped and asked what we were doing. My co-worker stated "just taking notes on your behavior for our files". Then we stopped writing and someone stated "please continue". For about a month he was a perfect angel and to this day doesn't do the public butt chewings. Our employee evaluations got a little better also. Anybody else got anything similar....... I'm saving my idea about leaving union brochures in the breakrooms and common areas until I'm on my way to another job. They would be having meetings all month trying to figure out how to stop a union from coming in :)

It probably won't last long when they can't get an agency or travel company to come to their hospital. Travelers will just go somewhere else. After their agency takes their cut the nurse would probably be looking at making the same as a staff nurse, not going to get many travelers/agency nurses that way for sure. Two of the top incentives for travelers are housing allowances and higher pay, the company can't do that on 40 dollars an hour. Here's an article from the hospitals about travel nurses and what they pay. http://www.hpae.org/whatnew1020041.htm

I wouldn't want to see massive numbers of people dying all over the world, but would it be an entirely bad thing? That is the way nature works, when you over populate it has to make a natural correction. You see it in other species and humans are not immune from it happening either. Loss of loved ones and emotions aside the planet would benefit if say half the population perished. Less natural resources consumed, less pollution, more food resources, oil reserves would last longer, etc. We are up to over 6.4 Billion people now, double the population in 1965. It's only a matter of time before Mother Nature takes a swipe at us for crowding her rock. I would hate to see that line in the ER :barf01: It is scary to think what the US or Russia have locked away in freezers or about half the other countries in the world for that matter.

Every situation is unique. I have an AA degree already so if I had gone ADN it would have been 2 years, BSN is gonna be 2 years, so time didn't matter. I couldn't see any reason to go to school for 2 years and not at least get the bachelors. Starting from scratch an ADN can take about three years with prereq's, if you get in right away, while a a BSN takes four years. Thats not a lot of difference time wise. It probably varies, but in my neck of the woods ADN programs are harder to get into than BSN programs. Our local ADN program got over 600 applications last year and the BSN program got like 200.

I saw someone make the comment "I care for my patients, not about them". So my questions are: -Who out there views nursing as getting paid to care "for" patients? -Who out there feels they get paid to care "about" patients? -Who feels they do both? -Who feels that nursing has nothing to do with getting "paid" and they care for people from their heart, not their pocketbook? Definitions: care FOR - provide correct professional care and fulfill the patient's needs with no emotional attachment. care ABOUT - have a genuine heartfelt interest in the outcome of the patient, like one would for a family member or friend. I personally do not care that much for people other than my family or friends. I just don't have any personal feelings when dealing with strangers. I don't want to seem cold, I am genuinely friendly and personable with most people I meet. I want to provide the best correct care possible and don't like seeing bad things happen to people but I also prefer to leave it at work when I walk out the door. I look at this as a professional career and not so much as a contribution to all of mankind. - Do you think this type of attitude is a benefit or downfall? I would think emotionally caring about people, especially in the revolving door of a hospital, might be somewhat mentally draining and stressful at times, does anyone else agree?

[quote=You live from paycheck to paycheck. In other words, you don't have a lot of cash around. And let's imagine that you did something really wrong, and get sued. Suppose the jury found for the plaintiff, and ordered you to pay them $500,000. Where are you going to get the money? If you're like most people, you're going to declare bankruptcy. Relatively easy, relatively fast, and you no longer owe $500,000. And the lawyer gets no money, or very little. Neither does the plaintiff. End of story. I would recommend everyone taking this advice to read their state's bankruptcy laws. There are several different types of bankruptcy and discharge of debt is available under #7. This also requires you to liquidate anything not on the exemption list(ex. house) and only protects your paycheck up to $500 a week for example(in Florida)......Just some things to think about. Depending on your state they may not be able to take your house but they can still place a lein on it so if you ever sell it they can collect from the proceeds of the sale. I personally would rather have my insurance company settle a case/defend me rather than go through a bankruptcy. This issue is a case by case deal anyway. Some people I know, including myself, actually save money, invest in stocks and own their homes so some form of protection is required. Remember if your married you are not just protecting yourself but your spouse and joint holdings as well. This is by no means professional advice, just my delusional ramblings based on my skewed sense of reality :)

CNA certainly don't get paid enough but there is no room on the payscale to pay them anymore than they get. If a CNA makes $10 an hour, a LPN makes $15, and a RN $20 an hour there is no room to give CNA more money without giving everyone a raise in the process. You can't have a CNA making what an LPN does, just as you can't have a LPN making the same as an RN. It just won't fly. In my experience any low paid worker is expendable, there is a larger younger labor pool of them and the technical center is spitting out a new class every month so technically the bodies are replaceable. It's just finding good ones and holding on to them that is important.

So to be safe to practice I only need to be right 50% of the time. Kind of makes one feel safe in a healthcare environment :) j/k

Off Topic but it's funny you brought that up, I was getting a physical at a medical center last month and they have gone to the numbered tickets :) lol. The lab, pharmacy, and family practice waiting rooms all have numbered ticket dispencers and they have a huge lighted board over each station with the now serving number. I liked the "BLONK" tone that played when the number changed and everybody would look up like they were waiting for bingo numbers. I had to give blood at the lab and when I asked the nurse at the desk a question she barked "Take a Number !". I find stuff like that funny though so I just smiled :)

Another thought to consider is if this bill is successful, could it open the door for this type of education at the RN level ? There could be a Registered Geriatric Nurse. Instead of a typical ADN program (3 years with pre-reqs) they could trim it down to say 18 months total and just teach geriatric nursing and leave out the other areas. Less classroom and clinical time. Thats something to look for if this is successful on the LPN level.

I also wondered why one would not become a LPN and have the full scope of practice. In FL I guess the average LPN program is 10-11 months so I could see them trimming down this Geriatric Nurse program to say, 6 months. They could run two classes a year instead of one for instance. The program would be cheaper by 1/2 and people as a whole these days are more impatient and want stuff faster. Less education X Less skills = Less Money (in most cases anyway) I would just hate to see this kind of thinking, if successful, applied to other areas like: Certified Pediatric Nurse, Certified OB Nurse, Certified Oncology Nurse, etc. There would be all these 4-6 month programs essentially limiting these LPN-level nurses to one specific area.

http://www.flsenate.gov/session/index.cfm?BI_Mode=ViewBillInfo&Mode=Bills&SubMenu=1&Year=2005&billnum=430 Check out the text of this proposed bill in Florida. It calls for the creation a Certified Geriatric Nurse specialty. The word "Certified" kind of threw me in the title but in reading the bill they intend for them to function in a licensed practical nurse capacity. It appears that they would pretty much be a LPN that is only allowed to work with geriatric patients. They could dispense meds, work under their own license, etc. Does anybody else see this as a way to get people through school faster and pay them less thus saving LTC money? Like a RN makes more than a LPN so it would only seem natural that a Geriatric Nurse would make less than a LPN since they have more limited duties. They would also be allowed to supervise CNAs. Here goes my conspiracy theory J Does everyone else see these "specializations" as a trend to dumb down the profession as a whole, giving nurses less flexibility in their scope of practice and careers in an effort to "trap" them in certain areas and an excuse to keep pay lower?